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Los Castaways En Ciudad Mexico

We spent the darker, more solstice-y parts of our winter in our collective homes, or wandering off to far away places as some of us are wont to do. There were some birthdays, and probably someone showed up at practice with treats, a cake, a bottle of Bader Cellars. likely some kind of chocolates. We caught up on band business and did some planning for 2013, yawn, which sounds not very rock and roll, but it had to be done. And now, we are getting back on the stage and hello, that’s more like it!

We’re so grateful to the good people of Urban Coffee Lounge for giving us a regular home. We’re there about every other month — two of our three shows this year have been on their little stage. (We did have that field trip to Leavenworth, that was fun.) The most recent show, that felt like us getting reconnected to What We Do, a good feeling after a bit of winter hibernating.

But maybe even better than connecting to What We Do, at this last show we got to connect to the big wide world. Urban Coffee Lounge guest Carla popped open her laptop, opened a video chat window, and streamed our entire gig to her friend Fernando in Mexico City. “He says you guys sound great,” she said, “he can hear you really well.” And we could see him, totally rocking along with the rest of the crowd.

Our band is stacked with nerd cred. When we visited the GeekWire studios last year, we joked that if we didn’t make it in music, we could fall back on shipping some software. But we’re not a bunch of post millenium jaded hipster geeks (Oh, she did not just say that! Did she?!? Snap!), we’re still dorky enough to get giddy with joy over something as simple as a live stream to Mexico City. Technologically, not that challenging anymore. But conceptually? Freaky cool, right?

Carla and Fernando (on the laptop) in the middle of Urban Coffee Lounge

We love what tech helps us do. It’s helped us build this site, make great art, produce our video, arrange our music, manage our newsletter, make new friends…and we love that it helps our fans spread the word too. There’s something magical about emerging from our unofficial winter hibernation and having a new friend broadcast us all the way to Mexico City just by opening a laptop.

“He wants to see you guys live,” said Carla.

“He IS. Right NOW!” I responded.

“Also, he wants to know if he can have a picture with you.”

“Let’s make that happen.”

Carla brought the laptop up on stage with us, turned it to face out, and we all gathered around the virtual Fernando, projected from Mexico City. She handed her phone to a stranger in the audience, and he snapped a photo.